Kings Park Psychiatric Center: The Abandoned Long Island Asylum

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Kings Park and the Education of an Explorer Every pursuit has a place where beginners go first. Skateboarders have their parking lots and curbs. Climbers have their local crags. And if you are just finding your way into the world of urban exploration on Long Island, sooner or later someone points you toward Kings Park. The former Kings Park Psychiatric Center has become, over the years, something like a finishing school for people who don't yet know they're enrolled. Getting onto the grounds is straightforward. Finding a way inside the remaining buildings, if you know where to look, is not much harder. Which is exactly why the Parks Police have written thousands of trespassing tickets here in a single calendar year, why security visibly tightens every Halloween, and why local photography groups have been known to show up with large, enthusiastic crowds of people who want to take what they call "creepy" photos of old hospital asylums. The place attracts everyone, which...
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The Gentrification House

 

A street corner in Brooklyn showcasing the stark contrast between old and new: a graffiti-covered, dilapidated building with a weathered façade stands beside a modern, multi-story apartment with clean lines and glass balconies. A pedestrian crossing in the foreground underscores the crossroads of urban change and gentrification.


I believe I saw this house on social media during the pandemic. It wasn't until I was hunting boarded-up houses around Bushwick Brooklyn I came upon the 'gentrification house' by happenstance. I pulled over immediately and went to work to find the right angle. I knew it was going to be a very pleasing aesthetic composition because of the pointed contrast. When you see it it is very striking in its presence. All over the city, you see the same architectural housing popping up all with the same aesthetic without any difference in uniformity or uniqueness. Even the NYTimes did a piece on this budget constraining developer buildings across several states such as Nashville, Denver, and Seattle.






Source:


1. Kodé, Anna, "America, the Bland," January 20, 2023, NYTimes

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